Those who have followed PNG Campaign News for the past four years
will certainly remember the long history of unlawful rainforest
plunder in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The province
already has the dubious distinction of having JANT operate there.
This Japanese timber company one of the only chipping operations
in the world which turns tropical rainforests into cardboard
boxes. In 1990, negotiations for five new operations totaling
231,000ha began in urgency and secrecy.
Asples Madang, a local rainforest advocacy group; began to
research, document and publicize the widespread corruption and
abuse of process in forestry planning. They revealed that rights
to log the 100,000 ha Josephstaal area were signed away by the
Provincial government, acting as "trustees" on the landowners
behalf. Ultimately, all negotiations ceased in 1991. A number
of areas chose wokabaut somils as alternatives, while other areas
were simply left with no other development choices. Three years
have passed, and the voices for industrial forest operations have
regrouped. Once again, Madang Province is on the bidding blocks.
Madang and parts of adjoining Morobe Province were recently
declared the first Timber Supply Area (TSA) under the new
forestry legislation in Papua New Guinea. TSAs are the new
mechanism for the sale of timber logging rights to foreign multi-
national contractors who do the actual logging. Being designated
a Timber Supply Area implies rigorous examination of
environmental and social consequences of simply clearing 1/3 of
Madang province over a ten year period.
This has not been the case. Claims are being made that the
Madang forest sale process is once again occurring with highly
questionable practices. Read on...
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"Forged signatures compiled in genealogy survey of Madang area"
The Times of PNG
Thursday, May 12, 1994
By Godfried Yassafar
Page 2
A NOMINEE of the Provincial Forest Board (PFB) in Madang claims
forged signatures of landowners were produced to complete a
genealogy survey in 1992.
The nominee, Eddie Kulali said in 1992 when he was a forestry
officer with the Department of Madang, the provincial forestry
office was tasked to carry out a survey of plants and animals in
the areas within the recently created TSA 14 in the Madang
province. He said they were given exactly two weeks to complete
the survey.
He said the two weeks were not sufficient to cover the 100,000
hectares of potential logging areas which they had to cover.
He claimed that due to the limited time and political pressures
signatures of certain landowners were forged to complete the
survey.
Mr Kulali, who is now with the Wau Ecology Institute in Morobe
province said he was also involved in carrying out the geneology
survey. He said during the course of the survey, political
pressure was put on himself and the other forestry officers to
get the survey done within two weeks.
He said to date, the survey which was conducted in 1992, was not
reviewed by the National Forest Service (NFS) and he called on
the NFS to carry out another survey.
The Provincial Forest Office in Madang denied the allegation made
by Mr Kulahi. The National Forest Authority when contacted to
comment also denied the allegation.
Meanwhile, sources within the PFB in Madang said the recently
curved concept of Timber Supply Areas (TSA) would not work if the
landowners are not properly informed and consulted. In addition,
the concept was not explained properly to the people.
The TSA concept is creating confusion in Madang province and TSA
identified areas in the country.
The concern raised in Madang is that if the government wants full
participation from the landowners then the landowners have to be
consulted and briefed thoroughly.
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Concerned? Please take the time to write a letter to PNG Forest
Minister Tim Neville.
Dear Minister Neville,
We are deeply concerned over the timber sale process currently
being conducted by your Department in Madang Province. We have
reason to believe that the planning process conducted prior to
actual sale on timber rights in Josephstaal, Sogeram and others
were done in great haste; bringing to mind Madang Province's long
history of timber corruption.
If indeed landowner signatures were forged to get the necessary
landowner permission for logging to commence, as reported within
the Times of PNG, then the verdict is in: PNG's recent New Forest
Act means business as usual.
Papua New Guinea is one of four tropical rainforest wildernesses
in the world. With other deforested tropical countries now
suffering severe environmental and social degradation as a result
of poor planning, it is astounding that tropical cut and run
clearcuts are still being peddled as "development".
I ask that you immediately order an investigation into reports of
forged signatures in Madang Province. The pending sale of TSA 14
timber harvesting rights must be halted until such time that
rigorous assessments of the area's biodiversity, both plants and
animals, have been carried out.
Additionally, I urge you to interpret recent PNG Forest
legislation's reference to "sustainable forest" management as
incorporating ecological sustainability; that is, continued
ecosystem functionality, ecological integrity and maintenance of
existing biodiversity as the benchmark for any timber operation's
impact.
Your vision of a strong PNG timber sector; with local processing
and control, would be greatly strengthened with less of an
industrial and more of a community forestry outlook. The
wokabaut somil and other small scale community forestry efforts
are certain to have more long term, beneficial, and
environmentally benign outcomes than continued heavy logging
practices. There are several pilot areas in PNG where
landowners, through careful eco-management of there forests, are
experiencing true development. Please see that your Department
is aware of and supports such efforts.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to a reply on these
matters.
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You are encouraged to utilize this information through all
possible means; including writing letters, organizing campaigns
and forwarding to others.
Networked by:
Ecological Enterprises
2701 University Ave., B-368
Madison, WI 53705
USA
(608) 233 2194
gbarry@macc.wisc.edu
Ikolagikal Enterprais
PO Box 126
Madang, Madang Province
PNG